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i hope i have picked the correct forum. i am having a directv dish installed at my vacation rv site. can i order directv satillite internet and call and and have it turned on when i need it and then turned off when i don,t? i can call and stop, change, or start premium tv channels and i would like to know if i can do the same with the internet. thanks .

i hope i have picked the correct forum. i am having a directv dish installed at my vacation rv site. can i order directv satillite internet and call and and have it turned on when i need it and then turned off when i don,t? i can call and stop, change, or start premium tv channels and i would like to know if i can do the same with the internet. thanks .

Satellite internet is a different service, separate from Directv. It uses a different dish, also. Check www.hughesnet.com

... and you might want to check the Hughes FAP (Fair Access Policy) which, to me, seems like it would have applied fairly in 1987 but not 2010. I think between 2am-5am you can download as much as you like.

Typically, on the Home plan, to reach your download limit in a 24-hour period, you would have to download any of the following:67 photos (at 3 MB each)50 songs (at 4 MB each)10 video clips (at 20 MB each)

What activities may cause a subscriber to exceed their download threshold? Some activities are more likely to exceed the download threshold and trigger the application of the Fair Access Policy. Several examples are listed below:Full-length movie or video downloads (e.g., Netflix streaming movies)Continuous downloading or viewing streaming media content such as audio or video programming

... and you might want to check the Hughes FAP (Fair Access Policy) which, to me, seems like it would have applied fairly in 1987 but not 2010. I think between 2am-5am you can download as much as you like.

I have HughesNet. You have to sign a 2 year agreement with them just like DirecTV or Dish. Doesn't matter if you lease the equipment from them or buy the equipment up front. That is what I found rediculous, if I paid $400 to buy the equipment I still had to sign a 2 year contract to get it. Otherwise, I could lease the equipment for $10 a month, sign a 2 year agreement, and they gave me the equipment for free. In other words you have ot lease the equipment for almost 3.5 years before it would cost as much as buying the equipment. You would be well beyond your contract by then.

Anyway, the service itself is decent. The thing I like the most about it is that the download limits are daily instead of monthly. If I accidentally go over it slows down to dial up speeds for around 24 hours then goes back to normal. You are given one free token every month that you can use to get back to your normal speeds if you do happen to go over (you can buy more tokens for $10 if you need to). You always know exactly how much your bill is going to be each month (either the set price, or it will be higher by $10 for every token you buy).

To me this was much better than having cellular internet service where the usage went by month. If you go over your limit you can't use the system for the rest of the month. Or if you go over and don't realize it suddenly you get hit with big overage charges.

In this case though it sounds like you are going to be using this at an RV site only sporadically. To me the 3G wifi access points sound like a better idea for you. Like the Verizon MiFi. These I think you can pay for up front and then just buy data month by month as needed. You still have data caps though that you need to watch out for.

I'm looking for the same thing (part-time internet), but cellular would be out of the question since I need it for a remote vacation cabin which doesn't have cellular service not to mention WI FI. Hughes sound's interesting but it wasn't mentioned if the service could be turned on for say 3-5 months and then turned off when not in use. Also, about what monthly rate are you paying for Hughes (not counting the "lease fee")?

I am on the ProPlus plan so I pay around $90/month ($80 for service, $10 for lease).

I know you have to sign a 2 year agreement no matter what. I do not know if they allow you to put your account on "vacation" like DriecTV does. I would recommend calling them and asking them about that. I would think they would allow this, but you need to realize only the months you have service will count toward your agreement. So if you only have the service on for 6 months a year you will actually have to keep the service for 4 years to complete your agreement.

Also, they apparently do not pro-rate their early termination fees. If you cancel with 2 months left you pay the same penalty as if you had 20 months left.

I've heard that their Upload and Download Speeds are pretty slow compared to say AT&T's DSL so ask what their speeds are because I know 2 RVers who were more than glad to get rid of their service and now use Verizon's Air Card along with their 3G Network for Email, etc.

Like Chiliball said, both HughesNet and Wildblue have their own dishes, they do not use your DriecTV dish (and your DirecTV dish can't be used by them). Their LNB's are much different as they also have to be able to send the upstream signal back into space to the satellites.

Like Chiliball said, both HughesNet and Wildblue have their own dishes, they do not use your DriecTV dish (and your DirecTV dish can't be used by them). Their LNB's are much different as they also have to be able to send the upstream signal back into space to the satellites.

To accomplish this, the LNB/ODU needs an onboard transmitter. When you start talking about transmitting RF out into space, you fall under much different and much more strict FCC regulations. That's why under no circumstances will you ever see a transmitter on a Directv ODU (Dish).

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

I used HughesNet for a few years as it was my only option at the time. Switched to a 3G wireless router about two years ago, and it was SO much better. FIOS finally arrived about 3 weeks ago, and I haven't stopped celebrating yet. Satellite internet is the worst.

he reason i stared this inquire was because i was having a louse experience with the at&t prepaid data connect card. i have since solved the problem i pulled out a usb extention cable plug the usb card in to it and plugged it into the lapop and extended the card to the top of the rv window and taped it there. problem solved improved everything. of course i will not be able to download movies because of the gb cap. i can always download them at home to my 1tb hd at home and bring them wih me when i come up here(1tb holds a lot of movies). i can then connect the hd to the wd tv live hd that will be connected to the tv and i will be set. thanks for all the feedback:)

The Virgin Mobile MiFi card is the same as the Verizon card, but "better." No contract, $40 per month for unlimited data, drop it after one month, and start again when you get back to the RV park. MiFi card costs around $150. Sell it on eBay if you don't like it.

Virgin Mobile uses the Sprint 3G backbone. So, if you can get a Sprint signal at the RV park, and, by the way, anywhere on the road, you're golden.

beerstalker, thanks for your reply. i am just now hearing about mifi. from what little i have read about it i thought it was bascilly like a wifi hub. is it like mobile broadband? i am now using at&t prepaid data connect plan. up in the mountains (now that i added a usb extention cable and taped the usb card to the window) i get a consistant 3 bars and sometimes four. with the at&t prepaid plan i have a threshold of 2gb a month, this cost me $50.00. how does the verizon mifi differ from a prepaid mobile broadband usb card. i tried reading the verizon sie but they are using some terminology i am not familiar with. thanks
p.s. do you know what the typical download speeds are for mobile broadband and would verizion mifi be ant better?

With Verizon you only get 5GB Bandwidth Usage but with Virgin you get Unlimited Bandwidth Usage. Verizon is $60 per month and Virgin is $40 per month.

Verizon of course uses the Verizon 3G Network and Virgin uses the Sprint Network as the backbone of their usage network but that does not include Roaming into Verizon's Network as does Sprint but Sprint does not have the MiFi so you're stuck with either of the two above.

They are a Broadband Access Hub that 5 devices can connect to and the data usage is the sum of all devices connecting via the MiFi 2200 Hub.

i have access to sprint at home but not at the rv site. so, it looks like it will have to be at&t or verizion. maybe if verizion or at&t do not get favorable responses to their tiered price plans they will come back back with the unlimited. who am i kidding!

The Verizon MiFi acts kind of like a home wireless router. You can access it with up to 5 wifi devices. However, instead of hooking up to your wired internet provider it works over 3G with the Verizon wireless service.

I believe Verizon has 3 plans available.
1Gb for $20
3Gb for $35
5Gb for $50
Then $10 for every additional Gb.